The Los Ebanos hand-drawn ferry was a blog topic last month. Pioneering families living in towns on the south bank of the Rio Grande reached their ranchos on the little ferry and in other crossings. They established their ranches on the north side of the river.
Those Mexicans (later, they became Tejanos) built a ranching culture that survived until the 1880s, a culture well adapted to the harsh conditions of the region. A shared sense of community, shared religion, antipathy to Anglo-American influxes, tightly interconnected families, all produced a unique society.
Andrés Tijerina details this history in his fascinating book Tejano Empire (see my Shelfari page). It’s a highly readable account of the evolution of the Mexican ranches in south Texas, from the Rio Grande to the Nueces River. My impression, gained from history books, was that the area was a wasteland, a desert, inhabited by wild cattle.
Wrong! Mexican pioneers originally settled the entire area, fighting Indians, building a community, a network of roads, conquering the desert. Their extensive ranchos were well established by 1836, the year of the Texas revolution.
What would those Mexicans have thought, during the Republic of Texas years? Texas and Mexico each claimed ownership of the “Nueces strip.” Armies of both countries fought through the ranchos.
After the Mexican War, the region became part of the United States. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) required South Texans to choose citizenship – Mexico or the United States. Most of the pioneers spoke little English and didn’t understand the American laws.
I highly recommend Professor Tijerina’s history book. If you hope to understand South Texas, you need to read it.
Dac
2/28/2009